Saturday, July 23, 2016

Sunny Days is the theme of today's hop hosted by Lisa Lodge. My kit contained the sea glass and brass rose beads. I added the vintage yellow flowers which I got at CJS Sales in New York last year to help give it a summery look. I also added the golden shadow crystals for sparkle and the small pearls
for texture. Even though this is not a color I work with often I am
pleased with the outcome of this necklace and earrings.

Necklace number two also has sea glass from my kit. This time it is yellow coin shaped beads. I wanted them front and center so this is the idea that came to me. I spaced them with aqua fire polished rounds and aqua curved daggers also from my kit. Then I added pale yellow crystal rondelles. Gold curb chain finished the back part of the necklace. Yellow is the hardest color for me to work with. When my sister turned 70 I wanted to make her a necklace. She said that yellow was her favorite so I made her a yellow and light blue necklace. I liked it so well that I have used the yellow and blue color combination many times since. Those two colors seem to play well off each other. The sunny yellow really does speak sunny days to me. Here is a list of the other designers so you can see more lovely creations from this hop:

Sunday, July 10, 2016

I had the chance to design for www.znetshows.com again. The emag that they publish is called Creative Spark and the summer 2016 issue is now out. The link to see it is https://www.joomag.com/magazine/creative-spark-summer-2016/0401388001464874914?short
Znet is a wonderful company to design for. They are generous with their supplies. The supplies are very good quality and quite affordable.
This issue has six of my necklace designs. Four of them have earrings too and one has a bracelet also. They asked us to also do something that was not jewelry related so I made a metal treasure box topped with polymer clay that has sea glass tube beads and crystals embedded. The pic above is my favorite from this set of designs. I used a porcelain pendant, royal blue sea glass diamonds, royal blue sea glass tube beads, and white pearls to make this necklace. All of the supplies except the clasp are from znet. A simple gold toggle is the closure. It is on page 76 of the magazine.

The second necklace also uses the royal blue sea glass tubes. They are part of the straps. I used a royal blue sea glass ring to make the focal. It also has royal blue sea glass squares and white pearls. Gold chain finishes the straps. I like the feel of chain on my neck and it keeps necklaces lightweight. I created the clasp from wire. It is on page 77 of the latest Creative Spark magazine.

This necklace uses sea glass tubes too but this time they are spring green. I interspersed them with large navy blue pearls and white opal 4mm bicones for the straps. The focal was created with 3 antique brass rings wired together forming the base. The spring green marquis shaped sea glass were wired on top of the base. Brass wire embellishes the top of the marquis. The clasp is an antique brass toggle which I purchased from www.znetshows.com
I also created earrings to match. This set is on page 79 of the magazine.

I wanted to use the sea glass tubes as more than just straps so this design happened. I created a wire frame and wrapped rows of the tubes to make the focal. Crystal bicones and seed beads are the bottom accents. The color opaque blue opal is one of my favorites so I am pleased with this design. I spaced the tubes with pacific blue rounds. The closure is an s hook clasp and jump ring in gold. This necklace appears on page 78 of the magazine.

Tiny 3x3.5 crystal rondelles are a new item for znet so we were asked to design with them to show people what they could do with them. Since they are so small I did not want them to get lost in my design. I started with a gold filigree piece and made crystal and seed bead dangles to show them off to their best advantage. The color is opaque blue opal again. Gold curb chain is the straps and a hook clasp is the closure. I also made delicate earrings to match. This set is on page 48 of the magazine.

When the new double hole flat freeform pendants were offered to design with a design popped into my head immediately. I could see one of them used as a two strand bracelet focal, so this design was born. I used pacific blue sea glass rounds and white pearls flanked by more of the opaque blue opal tiny crystal rondelles. I could also see a necklace focal with the double hole pendants hooked together. Out came the jump rings and this necklace happened. Simple gold toggles were used as clasps for the necklace and bracelet. Since I had a necklace and bracelet I needed earrings to complete the set. This set is on page 92 of the magazine.

My last design for this issue was my treasure box. It was created with polymer clay. I embedded the spring green sea glass tubes and the opaque blue opal tubes on the edge. The tiny crystals were embedded in the center section to give it sparkle. After it was baked I applied a shiny finish coat. It appears on page 80 of the magazine. This completes my designs for the summer 2016 issue of Creative Spark. There are 23 designers besides me featured in this issue. It really is inspiring to see so much talent and so many unique designs. I recommend that you check out this link https://www.joomag.com/magazine/creative-spark-summer-2016/0401388001464874914?short

About Me

HI, My name is Becky. Beads began calling my name back in 2000. They bring me joy. When I have something else to do I can't wait to get it done so that I can get back to beading. When I look at beads I see what they can become. I want to share this joy with others. My greatest wish is that whoever is wearing one of my designs can feel some of the joy I feel in creating my jewelry. I am a member of the Upper Midwest Bead Society.